Almost 100 participants embarked on a World Math Expedition Monday at Dwight Elementary as the school hosted a family math night for second, third and fourth graders and their parents.

"We had such a good time," Principal Cathy Koch said. "Parental involvement is such a key part of student success. When a parent comes to school with a child, it makes a statement to that child that her mom or dad thinks this is important.

"What parents think is important, the child often thinks is important."

Wendi Curtis and Kris Coulbourn, teachers from County Line Elementary

School, led the math expedition.

Koch said the activities were standards-based math problems taken from the Benchmark release items, or actual problems from previous Benchmark exams.

Seven different stations were set up for students and parents to visit. Each station contained math problems relating to one of the seven continents.

Information about the continents and countries were also presented at each station, Koch said.

Backdrops contained symbols, flags and different information about various countries in each continent, helping students learn about their world, Koch added.

The math problems students had to solve related back to some information from the continents.

For example, the problem for Asia explained that because of the success of Yao Ming, a professional basketball player from China, a school in China wants to construct a basketball court. The problem then dealt with dimensions of the court.

When students and parents arrived at the event, they were given "passports" that were marked at each of the stations. When the math problem from a station was completed correctly and turned in, the student received a bead to put on a backpack tassle.

"They not only had to get the correct answer, they had to explain verbally to the teacher how they got that answer," Koch said. "That is important because on the Benchmark, students have to explain in written form how they arrived at their answers."

The math problems were easier for second graders and more challenging for third and fourth graders, Koch said. She said the different problems represented all of the five math strands from the Arkansas frameworks.

Koch said the idea for the World Math Expedition came from her work with Curtis and Coulbourn when she worked at County Line.

"Several years ago, those two teachers and myself were awarded a Toyota Time Grant, which funded these types of activities," Koch said. "This was one of the ideas that we used, and it worked so well, I brought it with me when I came to Russellville."

Koch said she believed including family members in the activity was important in light of the increasing expectations for students from the state Department of Education.

"I feel it's important that parents understand what's being expected of students," Koch said. "Many parents may not be aware of the format of the [Benchmark], so I hope this will help them know how to help their children prepare for the test and provide them with the support they need.

"I had a lot of positive response from parents."

Koch added that several faculty and staff members from her school volunteered their time to provide child care during the event, allowing parents who had very young children to participate.

"That was a big part of the success of the night," Koch said. "I was so pleased they were willing to help."